The Change

The Change

He stretched lazily in his chair as the fire crackled distantly far across the room, raising his scotch to his lips, he swished the ice around the glass before taking a sip. He turned his head, gazing out the window at the full moon breaking through the thin clouds. Exhaling softly he ran his hands over the expensive leather of the chair and closed his eyes, the weight of his years bearing down upon him. He had been alive a long time and seen things that had made him marvel and had lived through times that would have driven a lesser man insane with the sheer depths of the despair he had witnessed in his unchosen fate. Tonight was one of the nights he loathed, he estimated he had half an hour before the change came upon him, even now in the transient sanctity of his own drawing room, he could feel the insistent pull of the beast at the heart of his mind, beckoning him to give in, and sometimes like tonight, he felt too old to fight it.

After several precious minutes of self pitying, he stood up and slowly, gracefully made his way to the lower levels of his house, running his hands over the occasional marks that stained the wall, a harsh reminder of the few times the beast had broken through him before he could restrain it in his basement. As he made his way steadily down the damp, spiralling steps down into the earthy bowels of his house, he didn’t need to light a torch to find his way, keen eyesight had been imparted to him indefinitely as part of his ‘gift’ all those years ago, although he felt each time the change came upon him now, his elderly body had trouble recovering from the ravages of the transformation, tiny scars how cris-crossed his legs and torso where his ailing skin could no longer fully heal from the stresses his life had laid upon him. Stopping at the base of the stairs he could feel his breath becoming ragged, he clutched at his heart and could feel the cursed blood beginning to stir in his veins and arteries, only a few minutes now before his human mind recoiled and his base instincts exploded inside him, taking over his body, he hated the excruciating pain of the event almost as much as he despised it’s haunting regularity. He pushed open the heavy oak door with relative ease despite his small, seemingly emaciated frame, in the corner of the dank room that stank obscenely of rot and faeces, a cow stood, visibly shivering in terror, large brown eyes staring unblinkingly at this new arrival. He had led the cow down here earlier on, using another entrance from his fields, obscured from all but the most insistent eyes, the cow had been placid then, lazily chewing cud as he led it to the small earthen room it would be mercilessly ripped apart in and savagely devoured in a few hours time. Now though, the docile animal could smell the demon blood pulsating rhythmically through the old man’s body, hot and almost alive with the thrill of the change.

He knew he had to hurry now, he could feel the steady ache at the base of his neck signalling the start of the transformation, he had only a short time before the pain overtook his motor functions and he became a slave to the beast within, as he undressed carefully and lay the clothes on the table in the far corner of the dark room, he felt a sharp pang of guilt for the whimpering bovine still staring at him in perpetual terror, it’s bowels had loosened in it’s fear and the smell of fresh dung in the room was almost a blessing as it over-rode the stinking stale dampness emanating from the very walls. He knew the cow had to be here tough, the beast needed to feed during its temporary reign in the world of the living, as the transformation drained them both physically, dreadfully so, he remembered the time he had not left a source of food in the room when he had decided to contain the beast for the first time in this dungeon and he had awoken weak and near death with the strain of the passing and lack of food. He knew he could probably not survive another episode of that ilk at such a late stage in his life and it was the thought of his death that scared him the most, to the very core of his being. For he knew that upon his death he would join the halls of the damned, he had seen glimpses of his fate through the occasional flashes the beast within had afforded him, sights that he could hardly believe possible, the mere thought of a moment in that eternal pit would give any man reason to be driven to madness, the thought of an infinity there was unthinkable.

Ensuring the heavy door was locked with its multitude of heavy beams and chains, he attached himself to the enormous chain that protruded from the far wall, some 25 feet away from him across the earthen floor, the chains were a poor fit now, hanging uselessly around him but he knew how his body expanded and the chains would soon be as tight as they needed to be, as he miserably looked around him one final time at the cow now totally paralysed in fear huddled in the distant corner of the murky room, the pain came at him like a thunder-bolt, ripping through his torso like a lance, he screamed and dropped to his knees like a bag of stones, heaving and dragging air into his lungs via ragged gasps, the nails of his fingers clasped at the hard-packed earth floor, his eyes bulged in their sockets and seemed to swirl a milky white, before the mist was washed out of his eyes by a piercing black orb that grew and grew until his eyes were the colour of total night. He gagged as the tongue in his mouth grew thicker and longer, lulling through his now gaping maw, his teeth were seemingly sucked up into his gum as sharp, yellow fangs like cigarette-stained monoliths jutted unevenly out of his jaw. He felt dizzy now and could feel the consciousness of the beast meld with his own, he could feel its hate towards him, all-encompassing and final as it dwarfed his essence and changed the very shape of his mind. His knees snapped jaggedly and re-set themselves invertedly as his back arched violently and hard ridges of bone became visible under the swiftly growing bristles that now covered his back, every nerve of his body was on fire as the transformation entered its final stages, his fingers elongated and seemed to break and re-set into hooked claws, his nails fell out into the dirt to be replaced by thick black talons that raked the floor. As they fell on their back, as the internal organs were painfully twisting and re-shaping, the penis of the beast now changed from a small pink aging finger of skin to a leathery length of knotted flesh, their ears pointed and pricked to absorb the familiar sounds of this tainted world. Finally the transformation was complete and his essence could only see mistily and impotently through the beast’s eyes, a prisoner in his own earthly form, this in many ways was what disgusted him the most, the knowledge that when he was the master of the flesh, the beast could perversely see him going about his day, a constant internal intruder to his everyday life, never truly alone.
As the beast reared itself to it’s full height of just over nine feet, it roared with the sense of release, long and loud, shaking earth from the ceiling several feet above it, and causing wildlife tens of feet above it on the surface to scatter in fear of this new, alien predator. The beast dropped to all fours and shook the earth of it’s leathery, bristled hide and sniffed hungrily, it brought its eyes level to the cow in a quick almost reptile-like movement, now standing in an ever-growing pool of it’s own bodily release and charged suddenly, slashing its huge hand in a savagely orchestrated series of deadly blows, culminating in a show of blood and gore, feasting hungrily as it howled in its primal delight.
After it had eaten its fill of the bovine, leaving only a splayed ribcage and chunks of wet flesh where the animal had stood, the beast’s tongue shot out and licked the blood from it’s snout, it sniffed the air and could smell fresh prey above it and it threw its substantial weight against the earth walls, shaking the ground but not enough to free itself from its prison. The beast reared and yanked at the chains that held it to the wall, eyes always on the wooden door on the far side of the room, it could smell the aged wood and instinctively knew that if it could free itself from the chains, it could smash through the door and escape to freedom, to freely wreak havoc on the world above, it could faintly remember from past experiences the small town nearby bustling with fresh flesh waiting to be consumed, it’s quest for meat insatiable and unending. Digging it’s talons into the floor, the creature gave an unearthly shriek and strained against its bonds, and, much to the horror of the captive consciousness that shared the body of the best, slowly but surely, the chains began to give…